AAA's boycott of Israel is discriminatory, academic association charges

The Association for Israel Studies (AIS) released a statement condemning the recent American Anthropological Association (AAA) decision to boycott Israeli academic institutions on Friday.

In July, the AAA, a body that represents over 10,000 anthropologists worldwide, conducted a vote via an electronic ballot. From mid-June through the end of the voting session in mid-July, 37% of AAA’s eligible members voted on a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

The vote passed with 71% voting in favor of the resolution.

“The AIS expresses its profound dismay over the recent endorsement of an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions resolution by the American Anthropological Association (AAA),” the statement declares.

AAA: Boycott 'doesn't target individual scholars or students'

AAA President Ramona Pérez insisted that the boycott specifically targets Israeli academic institutions. She noted that individual scholars or students affiliated with these institutions were not the objects of the boycott.

Nevertheless, the AIS hit back at the move, asserting that such claims distinguishing between the institutions and the individuals are little more than words that, in practice, will do nothing to prevent those individuals from being affected.

“While the language of the resolution claims that it “pertains only to Israeli academic institutions, and not to individual scholars and students”, it is clear that the distinction between individuals and institutions is meaningless in practice,” the statement continues. “The decision constitutes an infringement of the freedom of students and scholars to interact, study, and conduct research about Israel.

"Given that the vast majority of Israeli academics maintain some form of affiliation with Israeli academic institutions, the resolution, in essence, unfairly discriminates against scholars on the basis of their national identity or institutional affiliation.”

The Association for Israel Studies statement concludes by stating its condemnation of the boycott vote and calling AAA leadership to retract their support of the resolution as well as refraining from implementing it.